Welcome to the Thrillerfest V Blog!

ITW is a youthful organization, always ready for a new way of looking at things. You'll find that dynamism here, in blog posts from authors, agents, editors and Thrillerfest attendees, past and present.

And that same excitement you feel from your favorite reads is evident in everything ITW does, and no wonder--the organization, staffing and publicity for ThrillerFest--including this new blog--is undertaken by volunteers, most of whom are ITW authors themselves.

So pull up a chair and stay awhile ... discover the latest news on what Thrillerfest V--the fifth anniversary of the conference--has to offer. Visit old friends, make new ones, ask questions, and hear about the remarkable things in store for the conference.

Whether or not you can come see us in New York--and we hope that you can!--please join us here. It's gonna be ... a thriller!

Friday, July 9, 2010

Thrillerfest: Off to a Great Start!

It's been an amazing start to the convention and I have to admit to being a little star-struck. Lisa Scottoline, Steve Berry, Heather Graham, R.L. Stine the list just goes on and on of great authors I've seen so far.

I sent out tweets on Twitter for those who want to follow that. You can find us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/thrillerwriters and if you're on Twitter and want to see what others are tweeting about use #ThrillerFest2010 to find news on Twitter about the convention.

A lot of pictures are going up on the ITW Facebook. You can find the main ITW page at www.facebook.com/thrillerwriters but you can also look up the group site as well and join (aka "like") us there! I hope to have some video tomorrow.

I attended Lisa Scottoline's session where she gave out great advise and the contact information of her agent with instructions to attendees as to how to send their manuscript along with Lisa's referral. What a generous gift! You could actually hear gasps in the audience when she did it! It was a great moment! The offer is only open to those who attended the session as far as I'm aware. This session was amazing and I highly recommend getting the CD for the session when it becomes available. I'll let you know when that happens.

I also attended Buzz Your Book with Douglas Clegg and M.J. Rose. That isn't a session that gets recorded since they do the session as part of their teaching course. But you can find out more about it on Amazon since the book "Buzz Your Book" will be out in a new edition this year. Definately something I recommend picking up.

I got just the end of R.L. Stine's session, but what impressed me was that he stayed after the session and gave his time to every person that wanted it. He gave advice, shared information and just chattd with fans and aspiring authors. He was so gracious with his time and I thought to myself, "Now THAT is why ITW is special." So many people here are willing to share their ideas, knowledge, experince and time.